Spoilers: slight reference to an event in 'Phantom Traveler'
I have re-added a 'deleted scene' in this chapter after I originally posted it without (thinking that it dragged out the scene and could be left out without problem). I had a couple of reviewers tell me I shouldn't have cut it so, taking their advice, I have put it back. I hope the everything still flows all right.
Coulrophobia
- Floor 3, part 1 -
oo0oo
"So, wait," Sam said through panting breaths, "I heard you, both of you, screaming-
"Hey," Dean interrupted, "I don't scream."
"Fine, yelling, whatever," Sam rolled his eyes and stood upright. "I heard you both! When I was in that cage, I could hear you both scr- yelling in pain."
"Well," Dean walked around his brother and started climbing the stairs, "you said you had been knocked out. Maybe you were having one of your nightmares."
"No, I was awake," Sam muttered under his breath, following his brother. "And, I know what I heard."
Luckily, this stairway was not nearly as disorienting to Sam as the last had been. In fact, this one was quite cheerful. Well, maybe not cheerful, but it was certainly colorful.
Each of the steps leading up to the third floor was a different color of the rainbow and lit up from the inside when stepped on. The walls were striped in various colors and unevenly polka-dotted with soft, round lights. Weaving around the lights on the left-hand side were large and curvy letters.
Laugh at your friends, and if your friends are sore;
So much the better, you may laugh the more.
Sam read out loud as he climbed the stairs.
"Hmmm," Kole murmured as she caught up. "I never would have figured these guys for Pope fans."
"What?" both Winchesters turned and asked.
"Alexander Pope," she told them as if it were obvious. "You know, Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Dean still looked at her as if she was crazy, but something like recognition passed over Sam's face.
"And, To err is human, to forgive, divine. Same guy, right?" Fleeting memories of Jess working on a paper for her Literature class floated through his mind.
"Very good," Kole smiled and gave him a nod. Dean rolled his eyes.
"OK, Professor," he said, looking at Kole. Then, he turned to his brother, "and Mary Ann. Are we ready to do this?"
"Yeah," Sam told him after a quick glare. He took a calming breath, mentally and physically preparing himself while Dean opened the large teal and violet checkered door.
Kole was about to answer as well but, as Dean unlatched the door and allowed it to swing open, her voice caught in her throat. Her eyes widened and she felt her body go cold at the sight before her.
"Clowns?" Dean said with laugh of disbelief. "So, I take it this is the easy floor." He strolled into the room, looking around with a large grin on his face. The large room was filled with life-size clown statues in a variety of shapes and poses, all with brightly painted faces and silly outfits. Some were smiling and some were frowning; some held out balloon animals and some were situated on unicycles; some were even in mid-acrobatic rolls.
Sam walked in a step or two behind his brother. He, too, was relieved that this floor seemed designed to entertain rather than scare, pausing to look at a clown magician with a rabbit pulled halfway out of a large yellow and red top hat. Then, he realized that there was no one next to or behind him, and turned to see Kole still frozen in the doorway.
"Kole?" he called. Dean turned around at Sam's voice.
"Oh don't tell me," he said with a smirk. "You're not really… I thought that was another urban legend. I never believed there were actually people afraid of clowns!" He couldn't help but laugh.
"Dean," his brother reprimanded. He walked back to his cousin and took her hand in his; trying to guide her into the room the way a parent would with a toddler. Giving her icy, trembling hand a soothing squeeze, he smiled. "It's all right."
"Oh, for God's sake," Dean said and rolled his eyes. "What are you afraid of? They're not even real. And, they're… clowns." Sam gave him another reproving look. Dean shrugged at him.
"Look," she said, her voice was small and held none of her natural confidence, "I know it's irrational. I know that. But, that doesn't change the fact that… clowns," she said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth, "are just… just…"
"It's all right," Sam told her again and gently pulled her forward.
Dean marched ahead with Sam and Kole not far behind. Sam felt a little guilty about it, as his cousin seemed terrified, but he couldn't keep the smile from his lips or eyes as he looked around the large room. The closest he had ever come to a circus was when a few clowns had come to one of the many grade schools he had attended. His classmates had talked about their own personal circus experiences for the next couple weeks, and Sam devoured them all like cotton candy and snow cones.
This is a happy little ditty
I know the music isn't pretty
You know the words are not so witty
Anyone can sing this song
"What is that?" Dean asked as he stopped abruptly and looked around. Sam and Kole nearly ran into his back and Dean spun around when he noticed the faint singing was coming from Kole.
"Sorry," Kole stammered, "It's just a… a nervous habit. I can't help it. I mean, it looks like Barnum and Bailey vomited all three rings in here, with a dash of Ringling Brothers and Cirque du Soleil on the side."
"That's a lovely image," Dean mocked. "What I meant was, what were you singing?"
"Shirley Temple," she told him quietly. "When I was growing up, the neighbor that used to sit for me watched Shirley Temple movies almost non-stop."
Dean rolled his eyes at her and shook his head.
"And what you like me to do, Dean?" Kole asked with spite, irritation finally one-upping her anxiety. "Start whistling Metallica?"
Dean flinched slightly then turned glowering eyes on his brother. Sam shook his head – he had never told her about Dean's panic-induced humming.
"Anything's better than Shirley Temple," he growled and turned around, starting to move forward again. She glared at his back, then smirked and began singing again loud enough to clearly be heard.
"I think I'll go for a walk outside now. The summer sun's calling my name; I hear it now."
Sam couldn't help but laugh out loud, knowing that not even Marcia's long blonde hair or short skirts had ever lured Dean into watching The Brady Bunch. Of course, it had been one of Jess's favorite shows and he watched marathon broadcasts with her on many a rainy afternoon. So, just to watch his brother's torment, he sang along. Hey, what are little brothers for?
"I just can't stay inside all day. I've got to get out, gimme some of those rays."
"OK, OK," Dean said through clenched teeth, "there is something worse than Shirley Temple."
Kole: Everybody's smiling
Sam: Sunshine day
Kole: Everybody's laughing
Sam: Sunshine day
Together: Everybody seems so happy today in the sunshine day
"You guys suck," Dean grumbled.
They stopped singing only because it was hard to sing and laugh at the same time.
"So," Dean said with a smirk while trying to avoid a second verse, "did you see IT when you were too young or something?"
"See what?" Sam asked, not following his brother's train of thought.
"IT!"
"He's talking about the movie based on the Steven King story," Kole explained to Sam. "And, no, I didn't have a problem with IT. I mean, first of all, there was nothing phony about Pennywise. The dude was evil and if you couldn't see that just by looking at him, well…" she growled a little when she noticed Dean still smirking at her.
"Second, Tim Curry is one of the coolest actors of all time."
"You're a Rocky fan, aren't you?" Sam asked, his turn to smirk at his cousin.
"Well, duh."
"Rocky?" Dean asked, his turn to be confused. "The boxer? I would've never pegged you as…" he trailed off when Sam and Kole laughed. "What?"
"Wrong movie," Sam told him, then turned to Kole again. "So, did you ever go to a show?"
"Once again, duh."
"Who were you? Columbia?"
"Magenta," she said with a smile. "Had the tattered maid's costume and all. And," she said appraising him, "I'm guessing you were a Brad."
Sam felt himself blush a little, but couldn't help smiling at the memory of Jess as Janet.
"OK," Dean said, getting annoyed at having no idea what they were talking about. He hated being left out of conversations. "So what was it? Bad circus experience? Drunk clown trying to entertain at one of your little friend's birthday parties? Some other movie that rubbed you the wrong way?"
Yeah, that was it. Dean noticed the flinch.
"What was it?" he asked again, smirk back in place.
"klrklnsfrmotrspac," Kole mumbled and rolled her eyes.
"What?" Dean and Sam asked at once.
"Killer Klowns from Outer Space, OK? Everyone else thought it was so funny. That movie was the creepiest thing I have ever seen!"
"Wait a minute," Dean said between guffaws, "there is actually… a movie called…"
"Yes, there is," Kole told them in a huff. "It's a B-movie where aliens, that look like clowns, come to earth and kill people. I mean, the police chief as a puppet and drinking blood through crazy straws out of cotton candy cocoons… And all with great big smiles painted on their faces to hide their true evil nature. Creepiest-Movie-Ever."
"I… don't even know… how to respond to that," Sam told her. Dean was standing next to him doubled over in amusement.
"Look, we all have our own hang-ups," she said with strained patience. "I just believe that you should never trust a room full of clowns."
o0o
The three of them had been walking in silence for a ways, weaving around the multitude of clowns, when something caught Sam's attention. As he turned for a closer look, he unconsciously let go of Kole's hand and took a step to his right.
"Sammy?" When Sam took a couple more steps, paying no attention to him, Dean tried again. "What's up, Sammy?" He followed a few paces. He wasn't about to let his little brother wander off to get abducted again.
"I saw something… move," Sam replied, still gazing towards the spot.
"That's not funny, Sam," Kole was instantly only an arm's length away from Dean.
"No, really," Sam said. He looked back at his brother and cousin and nodded his head to the right, silently telling them to follow him. "I know I saw something move."
They walked to a particularly dense patch of jesters and jokers, all of them seemed to be moving.
"They're animatronic," Dean said in wonder, "like those singing animals from that kids' pizza place." Sam raised his eyebrows at his brother. "What? There're commercials on TV for it all the time."
"Yeah," Sam said, "we've all seen the commercials, Dean. I'm just amazed that you used the word 'animatronic'. And, correctly."
"Shut up," Dean grumbled.
The outer edge of figures were waving and generally moving in the tell-tale jerky motions of automated figures, but the movement became more and more fluid as they made their way to the center.
"OK," Sam said as he backed away from a jester juggling four bowling pins like a pro, "yeah, this is a little creepy. We should keep moving."
They started to move towards the exit again, but the further they got the thicker the clown-crowd became. They began having trouble getting through the fray.
"This is ridiculous," Dean said and shoved into a statue next to him. Like dominoes, seven clowns went down.
"Dean," Sam griped as he made his way over the fallen figures, "some of these are broken."
"So," Dean said incredulously, "are we worried now about pissing off the evil haunted house caretakers?"
"Umm, Dean?" Sam backed up and stood next to his brother. Dean followed his gaze to a pile of clowns, many of which now sported cracked or broken off noses, fingers, and arms. Then he noticed something strange about the sixth of the seven figures. Nothing on this clown was chipped or smashed, but there was a long gash in its cheek. Though there was no blood spilling from the cut, it was obvious that this clown was once a living human.
Dean was about to respond but was cut off by a scream. Both Winchesters spun around to find that Kole was no longer behind them.
Coulrophobia: the fear of clowns
PS- if you are curious, the discussion of IT, Rocky Horror, and Killer Klowns was the scene that had been deleted in the original posting.